According to The Washington Post, officials at the CDC are thinking about making changes to their official guidelines for battling the transmission of this novel coronavirus. Sure, nothing has been set in stone at the moment but that does not mean these changes won’t come.
While there is nothing anywhere that proves the covering of our faces would make a significant difference, many people think they would help. Now, this doesn’t mean the CDC wants the average person wearing masks, just that they should perhaps be covering their faces. Surgical masks and N95 masks under any kind of guidance should still, for the most part, be reserved for medical workers as they are in short supply already.
It would be ideal if people of the public would make their own masks as they might not protect as well as an N95 would, they would still keep them from touching their faces. Here in the US, we are seeing more coronavirus infections than anywhere else in the world is seeing right now and how we handle things matters. Sure, China has lots of cases as well, but they have finally gotten things under control.
The Washington Post wrote as follows in regard:
CDC guidance on masks remains under development, the federal official said. The official said the new guidance would make clear that the general public should not use medical masks — including surgical and N95 masks — that are in desperately short supply and needed by health-care workers.
Instead, the recommendation under consideration calls for using do-it-yourself cloth coverings, according to a second official who shared that thinking on a personal Facebook account. It would be a way to help “flatten the curve,” the official noted.
Such DIY cloth masks would potentially lower the risk that the wearer, if infected, would transmit the virus to other people. Current CDC guidance is that healthy people don’t need masks or face coverings.
At the daily White House briefing Monday, President Trump was asked if everyone should wear nonmedical fabric masks. “That’s certainly something we could discuss,” Trump said, adding, “it could be something like that for a limited period of time.”
In recent days, an assortment of scientists, health experts, pundits and influencers has vigorously advanced their position that everyone venturing into public or crowded places should wear a mask or face shield — even a homemade one — to lower the rate of transmission of covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.
Thomas Inglesby, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, said in an interview the CDC should urge people to use nonmedical masks or face coverings.
One thing that seems to be different here in the US than in some other countries is that we are not utilizing masks. In China, everyone wore masks while out and I have also heard lots of people in other places have done the same. Sure, we don’t know that it helps and many people will use their masks incorrectly but for some maybe it does make a difference?
Business Insider reported as follows about all of this:
George Gao, the director-general of China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention, was asked by Science magazine in an article published Friday which mistakes other countries were making in their response to the virus, and he pointed to guidance around masks.
“The big mistake in the US and Europe, in my opinion, is that people aren’t wearing masks,” Gao said. “This virus is transmitted by droplets and close contact.
“Droplets play a very important role — you’ve got to wear a mask, because when you speak, there are always droplets coming out of your mouth. Many people have asymptomatic or presymptomatic infections.
“If they are wearing face masks, it can prevent droplets that carry the virus from escaping and infecting others.”
During times like these please do your best to keep those affected in your thoughts. Try to stay safe and healthy as best you can and think of others before shopping in bulk. While things are scary right now, they will get better.